Texas

Spent the New Year weekend on a road trip to west Texas and just had to stop to take a picture of this wonderful juxtaposition. I liked the idealism represented by the Peace Sign symbol at the entrance of this ranch contrasted with the common sense realism exemplified by the Vote to Stop Obama sign. Yes, the two ideas CAN live in the same world.

I also like the prominent flag display and the show of support for the local volunteer fire department.

Peter Morrison is back with an admonition to conservative Texans to get busy on the next election cycle. What with the federal courts intervening in our redistricting process, it makes this election ever more important to weed out the RINO’s from state and national politics as much as possible.

I think this applies to just about every state, even those that we may think are lost such as California. After all, every move towards conservatism is a step back from communism.

The Peter Morrison Report

Summary of this week’s report:

RINOs are the curse of the GOP, but, as hard as it is to believe after two years of Tea Party activism, many key RINOs are still in office and Joe Straus is still the Texas Speaker.Â Despite the current redistricting turmoil, we need to organize to give the boot to as many RINOs in Austin and DC as possible.

Full report:

In 2012, Texas conservatives need to focus our energies on removing our own RINOs from office, and keeping them off the Republican ticket, this coming election.Â It’s impossible to overstate how important this task is, on both the state and the national levels.Â RINOs are poison to a conservative agenda.Â Â There is little real difference between them and Democrats, and once elected they use their power to sabotage attempts to enact good conservative legislation.Â We’ve seen this take place in Austin over and over.Â No matter how loudly conservatives speak at the polls, and how good prospects for conservative legislation look, the RINOs in the party often manage to water good bills down, or block them altogether.

On top of this, activist federal judges have thrown the election into complete turmoil by throwing out the new legislative district maps recently drawn up in Austin, creating their own maps, and ordering the state to follow them.Â This was in response to a lawsuit claiming that the maps drawn up in Austin discriminated against non-white voters, particularly Hispanics.Â The court found in their favor and drew up new maps that were much more to their liking, because they include more districts where Hispanics are a majority. (You can compare the legislature’s map and the court’s map by doing an internet search for Texas District Viewer.) Given long established voting patterns, what this boils down to is that the court has created several more solidly Democratic districts, and eliminated some solidly Republican districts.

Attorney General Greg Abbott has filed an emergency appeal with the US Supreme Court to put the enactment of this ruling on hold, partly because Monday, November 28th was the first day a person who intends to run for office could file paperwork for a place on the ballot.Â When it’s not even clear what districts will exist come Election Day, it’s pretty difficult to file the proper paperwork, so everything is in flux right now. Hopefully common sense and judicial restraint will prevail at the Supreme Court, and this ruling will be put on hold, but that is by no means certain. Â Furthermore, even if this ruling does wind up being eventually overturned on appeal, the voting trends driven by huge population growth among Hispanics in Texas virtually assure that the state legislature and Congressional delegation will become increasingly less Republican and more Democratic.

Given all these factors – the dim prospects of a truly conservative presidential candidate, the state elections being up in the air, and the massive demographic changes taking place in Texas, it’s imperative that we work harder than ever in 2012 to elect genuine conservatives to the state house and to Congress.Â The 2010 elections demonstrated what we can do when we’re truly motivated, and we need to recapture that same level of energy and motivation for the Republican primaries of 2012, which take place in early March.

If a RINO currently represents your district in Austin or DC, or if one is currently the favorite for the GOP nomination, start organizing now to defeat him or her in the primary.Â Wherever there are genuine conservative challengers, it’s time to get behind them. If there aren’t currently any, it’s time to recruit someone.Â If you don’t know of anyone else that might run, consider running yourself! It’s easy to think of reasons not to run or get involved, but as Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

Don’t underestimate the impact you may have.Â All incumbents either run unopposed or run scared.Â RINOs in particular know they have betrayed their base and are scared of being called on it.Â Several conservatives won in 2010 in the primary against well-funded incumbents, like former RINO state representatives Tommy Merritt and Delwin Jones.Â By running against someone, even if you lose, you make them spend money, money that an unopposed incumbent can use to prop up his fellow RINOs in other districts.Â If you lose and do better than expected, you might still accomplish your goal.

Case in point: RINO Burt Solomons just announced he won’t be seeking re-election.Â Insiders I know report that this is because he was shown to be weak in the 2010 primary when he squeaked by with 53% of the vote against an opponent who spent a tiny amount of money, and big money conservative donors were looking to run a very strong race against him this year, so he chickened out.Â There’s nothing more humiliating for an incumbent than to lose in a primary (and many of them are lazy from years in office with no serious campaigns), so often fear of losing makes them quit, and you win by default.Â This happened in 2010 when RINO Brian McCall decided not to run after the Tea Party started organizing against him in 2009; now that district is represented by a real conservative, Rep. Van Taylor.Â Slowly but surely conservatives are removing the turncoats who betrayed their constituents and elected Joe Straus as Speaker.

The Republican primary election date of March 6th is not very far away at all.Â Right now, the candidate filing deadline is December 15th.Â That may change, depending on what happens in the courts.

In the next few weeks we’ll have a definitive answer one way or another on the redistricting map, so if your district is currently in flux that should change soon.Â So keep an eye on the news, and get ready to do battle this March with GOP sellouts!

If you have any specific questions about your district, such as whether your incumbent deserves a challenger, feel free to email in.Â I can find out if there is an existing challenger and help connect you with some folks who can help you if you decide to run.

This graph shows the Voting Recommendations from Conservative Organizations in Texas

As you can see from the graph, the conservative organizations in Texas areÂ AGAINSTÂ most of the propositions on the ballot.Â Proposition 1 is the only proposition that most conservative organizations are in favor of. Proposition 10 has a pretty neutral recommendation so that one is a tossup. The rest of the propositions are generally seen as bad propositions by the majority of the conservative organizations.

Everyone of course should investigate the propositions and make their own determinations of how they should vote. This is just a guide

The other day I caught a reference to the previously unknown-to-me blog, Pesky Truth, where Garnet92 has written a couple of excellent articles on The Good and The Bad sides of Texas Governor Rick Perry. They are well researched and include links to most, if not all, cited references. While I’m not endorsing any republican candidate at the moment, I highly recommend these as a starting point to educate yourself on Perry’s positives and negatives.

A trio of Houston area veterans groups is suing Veterans Affairs and the director of the local National Cemetery claiming they’re trying to censor religious freedom during funerals and other ceremonies.

This is an outrage and should not be allowed to continue. The families of our fallen heroes should be allowed any form of prayer or religious services they wish without the government’s pre-approval of prayers submitted beforehand.

Just last week, a federal tyrant threatened the Texas Senate with grounding all flights in Texas if the anti-groping bill was passed. Yesterday another federal tyrant, an unelected appointed-for-life federal judge named Fred Biery, banned any and all prayer at the Medina Valley ISD graduation ceremonies.

He went as far as to order students and administration that they could not use words like “prayer,” or “bow their heads,” or “amen” upon penalty of jail time for contempt of court.

Folks, it doesn’t get any more outrageous than this. There’s only one real solution: civil disobedience by students at the Medina Valley ISD graduation, followed by interposition and nullification of the judge’s order by the governor. The sovereign state should interpose itself between the tyrant and its citizens to prevent abuses of the Constitution, and nullify this judge’s unconstitutional order. It’s the only solution that preserves the students’ rights in time for their graduation.

Rick Perry talks a good talk about protecting state’s rights. This is where the rubber meets the road. Governor Perry should order state troopers and other law enforcement personnel to protect the administration and students of Medina Valley ISD from arrest. Furthermore, this federal judge ought to be tried for unlawful assaults and threats. If I illegally threatened to kidnap and jail someone for praying in public, that would be a crime, and it’s the same crime even if it’s done by an unelected tyrant in a black robe.

Take action:

Please send a fax to Governor Perry asking him to use every resource of the state to protect these students’ civil rights:

You know, last time I checked, the First Amendment provides us with freedom of religion, to worship in the manner of our choosing, not freedom from religion. No one in the graduation audience will be forced to pray. I promise. If you don’t want to, then don’t. Go get a beverage or a souvenir. Or you could just stand there and politely keep your yap shut for a moment. The Muslim terrorists in Gitmo have more religious freedom than those on the left would allow our students.

A few days after the post ‘Defining “American”‘ I received a comment from Kristen informing me of her decision to respond to the article as a project for her college English Argument class, and asking if I would be interested in reading her paper when finished. Since she was very polite, I responded in the affirmative, with the caveat that if she did indeed send the paper to me, I might publish some, all or none of the rebuttal. After much hand wringing on the issue, I have decided to publish her entire argument. I think anyone who has children in public school or college needs to know what they are being taught. And I think Kristen proves my point that far too many people have forgotten what it truly means to be American, even if she didn’t intend to.

If you haven’t already read it, you may wish to read my original piece, here. I’ll offer some thoughts after Kristen has her say.

Response to Defining American

Medicare is currently doing its job now without being excessive, according to the chart you provide. Social Security was one of the many programs passed as part of the New Deal in 1935. (Kelly) It was successful in getting America back to economic prosperity whether you consider it socialist or not and that is why it is still around today. So why, all of the sudden, in the near future would it be predicted that we would be sending so much more on Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid. Medicare has been around since 1965 and government health insurance has been around much longer than that. In the early 1900s states began to collect taxes to be used as insurance premiums from workers and employers. The reason this did not work was because individual states did not want to implement extra taxes that may put the business in their states at a disadvantage during the Great Depression. (Corning)

“One of the duties of the State is that of caring for those of its citizens who find themselves the victims of such adverse circumstances as makes them unable to obtain even the necessities for mere existence without the aid of others. That responsibility is recognized by every civilized nation. . . . To these unfortunate citizens aid must be extended by Government–not as a matter of charity but as a matter of social duty. (Corning) In my opinion that is part of what it means to be American, to not only keep up with the other civilized first world nations but to surpass them with our new ideas and high standards. Being American is about being able to have different opinions.

Saying that more people are against America as it was founded than slavery is a contradiction. America was founded on great principals but those principals often did not translate into reality. In theory it sounds good; America was founded on the principal of escaping oppression on the basis of religious persecution. But ironically early America, as it was founded, was a very oppressive place. It was oppressive to women, poor people, and anyone who was not white. The American voting system was designed to prevent majority tyranny but how can that work if the oppressed minority cannot vote to begin with? This method of preventing majority tyranny did not work then and it continues to fail today. (Garlikov) Even when the minority on any number of issues can vote they continue to be outnumbered and oppressed by the majority. This is why progress is slow but of course progress will come, as it always has, with America leading the way. I am a strong believer in Democracy because I believe that most people want to do things that are good and right. While we may agree on what those things may be we still have the same goal and we both want what is best for America. I know that progress takes a long time, like civil rights and women’s rights. I feel bad that those things could not have happened sooner but it came when the people were ready for it and I understand that only when a value is generally held by a society that it can work as a part of law. To me that is what it means to be American: paving the road to progress.

You say that Obama is redistributing the wealth but you are failing to mention that our previous president, George W. Bush, was guilty of exactly what you are accusing Obama of. We all know that the higher your income is the higher your taxes are, but Bush made special exceptions. A Congressional study said that families earning more than $1 million a year saw their federal tax rates drop more sharply than any group in the country as a result of President Bush’s tax cuts and that tax rates for middle-income earners edged up. (Andrews) Bush may have lowered taxes for everyone but the people who got the biggest tax breaks were in the top one percent income earners in the United States. He added tax cuts on investment income and on estates specifically to benefit the richest households. Just one decade of those tax cuts would cost a trillion dollars. (Andrews) And the people to pick up the tab for the money lost during the Bush administration will be my generation and maybe yours since I do not know how old you are. The bottom forty percent of income earners get money back from the government and pay what is considered negative taxes so they were not affected by the Bush tax cuts. (Andrews) Obama extended the Bush tax cuts to individuals making less than $200,000 per year and families making less than $250,000 per year. In 2010 Obama gave businesses a $5,000 tax credit for each new employee they added. (Khan, Jaffe)

In your blog you say The true definition of being an American has been diluted by diversity and diffused by political correctness. I believe that this statement reflects the opposite of the definition of American. America has always been a nation of immigrants. America is perhaps the most diverse nation in the world. Having a diverse mix of ethnicities, cultures, and opinions and being able to live with and accept it makes America great. I agree that political correctness is not always a good thing in certain specific situation when it does not reflect truth. We should be able to talk about and address all types of stereotypes, perhaps then we can overcome our differences.Â In the words of Barack Obama “The anger is real, it is powerful, and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.” (Obama Tackles Race Divide in Major Speech)

I agree with you that many people unrightfully have an entitlement mindset. These people tend to think â€œwhat can my country do for me and are ungrateful what for what we provide to them with our tax dollars. But we cannot let these people affect the way we think of everyone who receives welfare nor should they be able to ruin the system for everyone. You say that … the America we thought we knew is teetering on the precipice of a debt cliff caused by overspending on unearned entitlements. But it is estimated that only about four percent of the United States budget is being spent on welfare. (How Much Does the Nation Spend on Welfare? – Public Aid, State Expenditures For Social Welfare, Private Welfare Expenditures, Welfare-reform Legislation) Entitlement programs like Medicare and Social security are paid into by the public when they pay taxes, that is why they are entitled to them. Of course we all get the same benefits without paying the same amount of taxes. You may call that Socialism and in a way perhaps it is but I still do not believe it would be morally right to let the poorest people do without these programs, as they are the ones who need them most.

You talk a lot about what you call generational training which you describe as an inherent flaw with each younger generation that causes selfishness. I completely disagree. Selfish, greedy people have always existed and always will. My young generation of new voters has plenty of pride and work ethic. In fact it is the older generation that takes the most from government if you include the entitlement programs Social Security and Medicare, which take up over thirty percent of the United States federal budget. (Nullification: Are State Level Officials Really Opposed to Federal Encroachment?) But I understand that they need those things and have the right to them. I sympathize with them knowing that I will probably be old one day too and I hope that when that day comes the programs I am entitled to are there to help me after I have paid into them my entire life.
As much as our opinions on these issues may differ I believe that, like I said before, we share a common interest: to make America better. I can see that you have strong opinions, as do I, and that is a good thing. Our passion and enthusiasm about politics and America is something we have in common. And because this is America we both can freely express our opinions, which I think is wonderful.

-Kristen

Here is my reply, slightly abbreviated, as I feel my actual rebuttal lies in most of the posts already on my blog and those of many other conservatives.

Kristen,

I’m glad you chose my piece as the opposing view for your article and I hope you continue your search for what it means to be an American. It is one of the most important questions you will ever ask of yourself or your fellow Americans.

You mentioned in your accompanying email message that you didn’t want to start a debate but I cannot let these arguments go unchallenged. It is clear to me that you are concerned for the well being of your fellow Americans and that is admirable. It is also painfully clear that you’ve bought into the whole “victim mentality” that permeates much of our country and serves only to reinforce the entitlement culture. While you say we agree on the fact that some entitlements are unearned, you don’t propose any steps to alleviate the problem. In fact, you mention it once and proceed to gloss over it.

I could go through Kristen’s piece line by line, but I’ll just do the first. It exemplifies the rest.

Medicare is currently doing its job now without being excessive, according to the chart you provide.

Did you ignore the chart after 2011? Didn’t you see the projected outlay of money to social programs which, if left unchecked, will bankrupt the nation? Not being excessive? Really? We are currently living on borrowed money to enable these programs. The interest on that debt is a huge contributor to the projected debt levels in the chart, not to mention when Obamacare really gets going.

You mentioned also that, according to some guy who wrote something (FDR – Corning), it is the social duty of government to take money from those who have earned it and give that money to those who have not (The bottom line of your quote.). The qualifications for that “benefit” are also to be laid out by the government doing the taking. You don’t have a problem with that? You don’t see the potential for abuse of power being actualized at this moment by the politicians buying votes with peoples’ taxed (stolen) dollars? This is why the Founders were against social programs born of the Federal Government, because the Fed. is too far removed from the people it is supposed to serve. These programs belong at the local, regional, or state level, if they come from government at all. (See Romneycare for an example of more government healthcare failure.)

It is clear to me from your arguments that restraining the powers of the Federal Government to its original “few and defined” number, has ceased to be taught in our schools. In fact, it ceased to be taught years before the New Deal. If it had been, people would have never been duped into such a ponsi scheme as Social Security or many other New Deal type programs. The New Deal was the gateway drug to government’s addiction to taking it’s citizen’s property, leading the way to ever more taxes and increases on those taxes for some other new entitlement, and now that they have set the IRS as a redistributive tool, they disguise any thievery at all in some cloak of charitable outlay while accusing the taxed of being cold-hearted, uncaring and greedy. Witness political projection at it’s finest.

Not far from where I live is a city called Port Arthur, Texas, which has a rich history in the oil exploration and refinery industry. The city has been run for decades by predominantly liberal policy. As of the latest tally the local unemployment rate stands at 16% to 17%, which is quite probably the worst in Texas. The jobs are available. High paying ones. There are many workers coming in from all over the country to fill positions the local people won’t take. Why? Entitlement Mentality. They have been trained for years by their government and culture to not take a job if it will interfere with their welfare or unemployment check, plain and simple. The unemployment rate in the state of Texas is 8%. Even if we assume that 8% of the population of Port Arthur is indigent, how do you explain the other 8%? I’ve lived here for 25 years and I can tell you that they do not want a real job, even when one is readily available. If you look at most any city or county across the nation (Detroit for example?) that has long standing leftist policies I believe you will find the vast majority to be the same. People won’t work if they are paid not to. It’s that simple. Look for yourself. Question what your professors tell you is “progress” and you will find that their version of progress only takes away a person’s will to provide for themselves. Is it any wonder that the Heritage Fundation’s 2010 Index of Dependence on Government finds

…the United States is close to the point at which half of the population will not pay taxes for government benefits they receive.

Half the population. How does that happen?

When I said “Generational Training,” I was not referring to young people being defective, as you inferred from my piece. I was referring to actual instruction, which you have obviously been receiving at the hands of the very people who wish to see you enslaved. The fact that you can veil all of your arguments into a guilt ridden projection of our countries past faults to justify more spending of money not your own is what I was referring to when I said “Generational Training.” Those types of thought patterns don’t happen automatically unless you have been so instructed.

As far as GWB goes, you won’t find me defending his over spending or any other republican for that matter. I’m no big fan of government spending no matter which side of the aisle it comes from or who argues for it. I find it funny that some people can criticize Bush for spending too much but praise Obama for spending ten times more. I don’t like either group spending our money and neither should you.

In closing, Kristen, you did a very good job of laying out the leftist talking points and guilt trips. The 16th through19th centuries were harsh times in the entire world. I’d doubt very seriously that women or blacks or any minorities were treated with the respect they receive today. But you fail to mention the fact that it was in America where those rights first began to emerge. It was Americans who abolished slavery. It was in America that women got the right to vote. It was in America where blacks got the right to vote as well. Why must we be forced to pay the price for something you and I had no part in? I don’t recall ever having owned a slave or preventing anyone a vote. Those arguments are old and tired. Can’t we just get past them to truly address the real problems of the country?

The idea of individual liberty is at the core of America and it is individual liberty that is under attack. It must always be fought for because there will always be someone wishing to take it from you, even under the guise of Social Justice or some other re-branding. Call it what you will, it is still slavery trying to raise its ugly head, and it is still wrong.

According to Texas State Comptroller Susan Combs, the data wasn’t exposed by a hacker or a group of vigilante scriptkiddiesâ€”it ended up on a state-controlled public server after having been passed around between various state agencies. The data came from the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, the Texas Workforce Commission, and the Employees Retirement System of Texas, all of whom transferred the unencrypted data (against state policy) between January and May of 2010. The information was only discovered on the public server on March 31, 2011, meaning it has been available for almost a year.

Really? A YEAR?

*Whew*

That was close. Glad they jumped right on it.

I thought the gubment storing all that personal data was supposed to be a good thing. I guess if your a malcontent and you know where to look, it is.

Yesterday marked the 175th Texas Independence Day, which should serve to remind us that as Texans, we should all do our part to help preserve what our ancestors fought and died for.

Along those lines, here is an email I received this week from Peter Morrison asking Texans to help themselves and their heritage by pressuring the Texas Congress to pass E-Verify legislation which will ensure businesses hire Texans and people in the state legally.

Help Protect Texas Jobs from Illegal Aliensâ€

I wanted to send out a legislative update on immigration issues. There are other important issues, but this issue above all others relates to the survival of our country and state.

Most immigration bills are processed by the State Affairs committee in the Texas House. Last session, Chairman Burt Solomons killed most of the good immigration bills. Rep. Solomons seems to have gotten the message this session, however, as he is one of the main sponsors of a bill to ban sanctuary cities. However, Mr. Solomons is no longer chair of the State Affairs Committee. That honor has fallen to Rep. Byron Cook.

Here’s what Rep. Cook has done so far:

He has scheduled a number of good bills for a hearing. Remember last time that the main way Solomons killed bills was by delaying or denying hearings. So far, it appears Rep. Cook is playing fair with the immigration bills.

However, there is one particular bill that has not yet been scheduled for a hearing and it happens to be, in my opinion, the most important immigration bill we must pass. It also happens to be the bill that the Cheap Labor Lobby, and the traitor wing of the Republican Party, will fight the hardest against.

This bill is HB 296, which requires state contractors and grant recipients to use the E-verify system. E-verify, as you may know, is an optional system that lets employers check social security numbers of employees against the federal database. Since many illegal aliens present fake documents to get jobs (and many employers are happy to play along, and are prohibited from investigating even if they smell something fishy due to oppressive “civil rights” laws), E-verify removes the jobs magnet for many illegals, who are usually incapable of anything more sophisticated than the petty fraud of forged documents, which E-verify effectively curtails.

As Roy Beck with NumbersUSA has stated many times, the Left likes to make immigration into a false choice: either we round up and deport people in an inhumane way, or we have to grant amnesty. The simplest solution is to remove the jobs magnet with a system like E-verify and people will self-deport. For example, it’s a lot cheaper to be unemployed in a foreign country like Mexico than in Texas. Then, these foreign governments will have to deal with their own social problems instead of pushing them onto American taxpayers.

There’s also a moral side to this issue. The law of supply and demand determines who gets rewarded in a free market system. For example, the main inputs into the production of aluminum are bauxite and electricity. It makes sense that if, for example, energy prices are really high (indicating high demand), that electricity producers would make more profit during those times.

Many so-called Republicans are hypocrites when it comes to the price of labor. Whenever wages go up because of high demand from employers, the first response of the cheap labor traitors is to demand increased immigration levels to suppress rising wages. As a result, we have gone in a generation from a country where a high school graduate could support an entire family to a country where the average person can barely make it on the market wage unless they reduce themselves to a Third World standard of living. When the cheap labor traitors can’t get wages beat down enough through legal means, they have used their political influence to stop enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws so that they can hire illegal labor at even lower wages.

We see this kind of corruption- the use of government policy to manipulate the labor market- up and down the economic ladder.Â America’s richest man, Bill Gates, has the audacity to ask Congress for more H-1b visas so Microsoft can have an army of indentured servants programming for $30,000 a year instead of employing Americans at the market wage. At the other end we see the massive fraud and criminality of the meat processing industry, which used to be a place where average Americans could earn a decent wage doing an unpleasant job.

Cheap Labor Lobby companies like the Tyson Corporation make billions of additional profits by lowering their direct labor costs at the expense of American workers and jobs, while simultaneously pushing untold billions of additional social spending onto American taxpayers for the health care and education required by law to be provided to illegal aliens.

On a related note, I think we would all prefer our computers to run more reliably if more software companies like Microsoft would invest in talented American programmers instead of Third World coding sweatshops.

A friend of mine from college told me the story of his father, who used to make six figures programming mainframes. He was laid off right before retirement and looked for a similar job (even at reduced pay) for over two years; he now works in the electronics section of the local Wal-mart. You see, technology companies don’t want to hire a 50-something family man when they can get an Indian programmer on an H-1b visa to work 60 hour weeks, under threat of deportation, for $15 an hour.

I’m sure many of you could tell me similar stories. There is a real human cost to the cheap labor traitors’ corrupting our government to distort the free market. We are denying our own domestic wage earners their God-given right to be paid the market wage in times of high demand.

Under our republican form of government, we are all essentially members of a covenant to respect each other’s property rights, even in situations where it does us personal harm. I have no right, for example, to demand that the electric company charge me less than market price, even if my personal situation is desperate and I cannot afford to pay. When we import Third World labor, we are bringing people into this country whose culture does not share our respect for free markets and property rights. If they did, first of all they wouldn’t violate our nation’s property rights by illegally entering and trespassing. Secondly, their home countries would not be such a mess, a long history of bloody demagogues and continual revolutions with each new leader as corrupt as the last.Â People generally get the government they deserve, as the old saying goes.

Thus, for short term profits, the cheap labor traitors ruin the long-term prospects of freedom, the very system that enabled them to generate their wealth. That’s why Democrats are so smug in this state, despite their recent electoral punishment. They know that, in the long run, demographics largely driven by illegal immigration make it inevitable that Texas will turn blue like California. It will take longer than they expect, but it will eventually happen unless something is done to reverse these ominous trends.

Once this happens, you can forget about a conservative President.Â You can forget about the Supreme Court, a primary reason so many of us hold our nose in Presidential elections and vote for the lesser of two evils. The game will be over if Texas falls; between New York, California and Texas the Democrats will have a lock on the Presidency. Our national government will then be under total occupation by Barack Obamas, Sonia Sotomayors and Ruth Bader Ginsburgs. The tattered remains of our much-abused but still-alive Constitution will finally be discarded by a permanent revolution of the Left.

Mandating E-Verify in Texas is a positive first step to counter these trends. The Cheap Labor Lobby will fight it tooth and nail, because it cuts to the heart of their criminal profits.

Take Action:

Please call Rep. Byron Cook at 512-463-0730 and demand he schedule a hearing in March for HB 296, which mandates use of the E-Verify system for many employers.

There are several new illegal immigration bills submitted by Texas State Representative Debbie Riddle and other conservatives that deserve our attention and support.

If the federal government continues to turn a blind eye to the issue, and they give every indication that they will do just that, it is left to the states to deal with. Rep. Riddle and her conservative colleagues have made the first steps, but we must encourage the entire body of lawmakers to finish the job.

Another pair, HB22 would require schools to request the immigration status of each student enrolled in a Texas public school, and HB21 would require state agencies (including school districts) to calculate the cost of services to persons here illegally.

Peter Morrison has written an article concerning HB22 and one of it’s detractors:

The Peter Morrison Report:

Texans Deserve to Know the True Cost of Illegal Immigration

Summary of this week’s report:

Texans sent a message last November when we went to the polls, and it was loud and clear: we want real conservatives who will take a strong stand on the issues we care about. One of our biggest concerns is illegal immigration, which is overwhelming our state. Unfortunately it seems that Rep. Rob Eissler, chairman of the House Public Education Committee, has already turned his back on our concerns. He is opposed to a bill that would require public schools to check the immigration status of their students. This is not what we voted for in November. Please send a free fax to let Rob Eissler know we’re not going to put up with it.

Last November, voters went to the polls across Texas and America and sent an unmistakable message: we’ve had enough of “me too” Republicans, and we want leaders who will do more than just mouth platitudes that sound good. We want Republicans who will fight for conservative causes and principles, instead of caving in and kowtowing to liberals at the first sign of opposition. Some of our senators and representatives in Austin have let us know that they received the message loud and clear, and they’re going to work hard on behalf of the issues we care about, and there are indications that this session won’t just be business as usual. Unfortunately, others seem to have completely forgotten the conservative revolution of last November.

Rep. Debbie Riddle (R-Houston) has proposed a bill that would require all public schools to check the immigration status of all their students. This is a very sensible first step toward getting a handle on the huge illegal immigration problem in Texas. As it stands now, there are no reliable figures as to just how widespread the problem is. If Debbie Riddle’s bill becomes law, at least we would finally be able to measure just how much it costs us every year to educate the children of illegals in our public schools. This is exactly the sort of leadership conservative Texans demanded
last November.

Unfortunately it seems that not all the Republicans in Austin got the message. One of them, Rep. Rob Eissler (R-The Woodlands) is Chairman of the House Public Education Committee. Recently he gave an interview to the Texas Tribune in which he was asked about Rep. Riddle’s bill. His response to the question should anger every conservative in Texas. At first he tried to avoid answering the question. Then, not only did he say he opposes the bill, calling it a mandate, he did so in a very condescending and offensive manner. He gave the distinct impression that he wants nothing to do with those of us who are concerned about illegal immigration, and won’t be doing anything to stop it.

Rep. Eissler pointed out that under Supreme Court rulings, public schools in America have no choice but to educate the children of illegals. Under current law, that is true, but Eissler is misconstruing the point of the bill. There is nothing in it which would order or allow schools to refuse admittance to the children of illegal aliens. It would simply require them to verify citizenship status, just as they already tabulate many other statistics, such as how many children are below the poverty line, what race children are, etc. Collecting one more bit of information would hardly constitute a burden on public schools.

It seems likely that there is more to Eissler’s opposition than the fact that this bill would be an inexpensive mandate. Not only does he appear to be opposed to efforts to rein in illegal immigration, he also appears to want to use the very fact that schools are being swamped by illegals as an excuse to raise spending on public education. In January 2010, a Houston Chronicle article discussed the fact that around 60% of students in Texas public schools are considered “disadvantaged”, because they come from a low income family, or they don’t speak English well, or both. Obviously, this problem has been made much worse by illegal immigrants, many of whose children fall into one or both categories. The Chronicle quoted Eissler, who said the answer is spending more tax dollars to hire teachers with “more qualifications” in our public schools: “You have more and more kids that are less prepared to do well in
school. Where the expense comes in, you need teachers that have more qualifications. Maybe we need more and better professional development for our teachers.” It’s hard to understand “teachers that have more qualifications” in this context as anything other than “bilingual” teachers. Eissler admitted that his idea would mean spending more money on public schools, which would also, quite conveniently, give him even more power as Chairman of the House
Public Education Committee.

Rob Eissler’s opposition to the Riddle bill is an outrage, and we cannot allow it to pass unopposed. For far too long we’ve put up with being betrayed by RINOs and phony conservatives, and it has to stop. Liberals don’t betray their base and start voting along conservative lines when they win office. No, leftists are playing to win, and they unashamedly represent the people who put them in power. Just this past week, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who famously said that she thinks a “wise Latina” would make a better judge than a white male, spoke to a group of students at the University of Chicago law school, and she made it clear she’s strongly committed to racial quotas and other preferences. She knows who made her what she is today, and she intends to use her power to advance their agenda. Meanwhile, on our side, we’re regularly betrayed by RINO after RINO.

Conservative Texans want leaders who will fight for what we believe in, while there’s still time to make a difference. California is probably past the point of no return when it comes to being destroyed by illegal immigration, but Texas isn’t that far behind. We must act now, or we will face the same fate that California now faces, a future as a third world state. We can’t let that happen here. We need to inundate Rep. Eissler’s office with faxes and phone calls and insist that he support Debbie Riddle’s bill. We need to let him know that we’re fed up with being betrayed by the leadership in Austin when it comes to illegal immigration. He needs to decide whose team he’s on. If he’s on our team, then he’d
better start acting like it. If he’s not, and he’d rather win praise from Democrats and the media for being “open minded” and “tolerant,” then we’ll solve the problem once and for all in the 2012 primaries.

Take action:

Call or fax Rep. Rob Eissler and insist that he start voting like a conservative when it comes to illegal immigration, beginning with Rep. Riddle’s bill to require public schools to verify the immigration status of all students. Tell him he needs to start opposing illegal immigration, or we’ll find someone who will in 2012.

Every now and then, I post a newsletter in its entirety. This edition of The Peter Morrison Report is especially important because of the upcoming vote on Texas Speaker of the House. The Democrats once again are attempting to influence Republicans in their choice for Speaker and you can do something to help stop them.

The Peter Morrison Report

Summary of this week’s report:

The vote for Speaker of the Texas House is a battle for the heart and soul of the Texas GOP.Â Supporters of Joe Straus know how important this vote is, and in the past few weeks they’ve been pulling out all the stops in order to slander traditional conservatives who want a change in leadership.Â This time, though, they’ve reached an all time low:Â we’re now being told it’s “racist” to bar Democrats from Republican caucus meetings.

Scroll to the bottom to see details on what you can do to influence this critical vote.

Full report:

A new session of the Texas Legislature is about to convene, and the first order of business will be electing a Speaker of the House.Â This ballot will be the single most important vote House members will cast during the entire session, as the Speaker has tremendous power to set the agenda, appoint committee chairmen, kill bills, etc.Â During last session, which was divided almost equally between Republicans and Democrats, RINO Joe Straus was Speaker.Â Straus used the power of his office to thwart conservative goals and paid off the liberal Democrats who voted for him by not rocking the boat.Â He even helped some of them campaign for re-election against conservative Republicans this past November.

This is totally unacceptable, and there’s no reason Straus should be elected Speaker in this session, because Republicans now enjoy a super-majority in the House.Â Voters went to the polls all over Texas in November, and we made our voices clear: we want a truly conservative legislature which will work hard to enact a real conservative agenda.Â We’ve had enough of “me too Republicans” in the House whose main career goals seem to be making friends with Democrats.

Naturally, Joe Straus and his cronies are insisting that they heard us loud and clear, and this session will be different, and Straus will fight for a conservative agenda.Â Conservatives aren’t buying this line, thankfully.Â If a man won’t stand for conservative principles when the going is tough, there’s no reason to believe he’ll do so when the wind is at his back.Â We’ve seen enough of Joe Straus over the years to know exactly where he stands on the issues.Â He made that crystal clear during the last session, and he’s not the conservative leader Texas conservatives need.Â All across the state local conservative groups are demanding that Straus be replaced as Speaker.

Party leaders are aware of this, and have scheduled a caucus meeting before the actual start of the session to settle on one GOP candidate for Speaker.Â The plan is to meet in private and pick a candidate everyone agrees on, rather than fight internal party battles in a public forum.Â This is nothing out of the ordinary; political parties do this sort of thing all the time.Â In fact, this is exactly why we have primaries, so the parties can agree on one candidate for the general election, instead of a half dozen people from each party vying for office.

Amazingly, though, one Democrat is denouncing the planned caucus as “racist” – because Democrats aren’t invited!Â Rep. Joseph Deshotel (D-Port Arthur) has written an open letter making the ludicrous claim that this meeting violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because most of the Democratic representatives in the Texas House are minorities, while most of the Republican legislators are white.Â Here’s a brief excerpt from his letter:

“The forty-nine (49) Democratic legislators not being allowed to participate in what is tantamount to the election of the Speaker consist of forty-two minorities; fifteen (15) African Americans, twenty-five (25) Hispanics and one (1) Asian. Should the Republican Caucus Bylaws be followed an additional two African-Americans and four Hispanic Republican Elect members and one Hispanic former Democrat would be denied a vote as well. These forty-nine minority House Members and the eight millions Texans they represent are being disenfranchised from the Speaker’s election.”

These days we’re seeing more and more outrageous claims of “racism”, but this one really takes the cake.Â First of all, the Voting Rights Act is a nearly 50 year old law that unconstitutionally discriminates against southern states.Â It’s a racist law that presumes black people can only be represented by black people, and that white voters in southern states are wicked racists who are always out to deny black people their right to vote.
Second, the Voting Rights Act doesn’t even apply to this caucus, which isn’t an election at all.Â It’s a private meeting for Republican legislators to discuss internal party affairs.Â There is still going to be a vote in the House for Speaker;Â the idea that this meeting will somehow invalidate the votes of minority legislators when they cast their votes for Speaker is completely ridiculous.Â No one takes this argument seriously; Rep. Deshotel has embarrassed himself and his cause by writing this letter.Â Crying “racism” when you don’t get your way is rapidly losing its force in America.

However, this letter does further demonstrate why Joe Straus is unfit to hold the office of the Speaker of the House.Â That’s because Rep. Deshotel has pledged his vote to Straus.Â How can conservatives support a candidate who’s acceptable to a liberal left wing Democrat like Joseph Deshotel, who stoops to accusing Republicans of being racists for not allowing Democrats to have a say in their internal party affairs?Â We already knew that Joe Straus was too liberal, but this disgraceful episode reveals just what kind of company he keeps.Â Joe Straus has got to go.Â We deserve a true conservative as Speaker of the House, not one who counts men like Joseph Deshotel among his supporters.

Contact Your Legislator and Demand They Vote for Rep. Ken Paxton or Rep. Warren Chisum for Speaker. Find your state representative here: Â http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/
The following list is from Donna Garner, and those highlighted in red have pledged to NOT vote for Straus.Â All others desperately need pressure:

Name

Party

Capitol Phone

Aliseda, Jose

R

(512) 463-0645

Anderson, Charles

R

(512) 463-0135

Anderson, Rodney

R

(512) 463-0694

Aycock, Jimmie Don

R

(512) 463-0684

Beck, Marva

R

(512) 463-0508

Berman, Leo

R

(512) 463-0584

Bohac, Dwayne

R

(512) 463-0727

Bonnen, Dennis

R

(512) 463-0564

Branch, Dan

R

(512) 463-0367

Brown, Fred

R

(512) 463-0698

Burkett, Cindy

R

(512) 463-0464

Button, Angie Chen

R

(512) 463-0486

Cain, Erwin

R

(512) 463-0650

Callegari, William

R

(512) 463-0528

Carter, Stefani

R

(512) 463-0454

Chisum, Warren

R

(512) 463-0736

Christian, Wayne

R

(512) 463-0556

Cook, Byron

R

(512) 463-0730

Craddick, Tom

R

(512) 463-0500

Creighton, Brandon

R

(512) 463-0726

Crownover, Myra

R

(512) 463-0582

Darby, Drew

R

(512) 463-0331

Davis, John E.

R

(512) 463-0734

Davis, Sarah

R

(512) 463-0389

Driver, Joe

R

(512) 463-0574

Eissler, Rob

R

(512) 463-0797

Elkins, Gary

R

(512) 463-0722

Fletcher, Allen

R

(512) 463-0661

Flynn, Dan

R

(512) 463-0880

Frullo, John M.

R

(512) 463-0676

Garza, John V.

R

(512) 463-0269

Geren, Charlie

R

(512) 463-0610

Gonzales, Larry

R

(512) 463-0670

Gooden, Lance

R

(512) 463-0458

Hamilton, Mike

R

(512) 463-0412

Hancock, Kelly

R

(512) 463-0599

Hardcastle, Rick

R

(512) 463-0526

Harless, Patricia

R

(512) 463-0496

Harper-Brown, Linda

R

(512) 463-0641

Hartnett, Will

R

(512) 463-0576

Hilderbran, Harvey

R

(512) 463-0536

Hopson, Chuck

R

(512) 463-0592

Howard, Charlie

R

(512) 463-0710

Huberty, Dan

R

(512) 463-0520

Hughes, Bryan

R

(512) 463-0271

Hunter, Todd A.

R

(512) 463-0672

Isaac, Jason

R

(512) 463-0647

Jackson, Jim

R

(512) 463-0468

Keffer, Jim

R

(512) 463-0656

King, Phil

R

(512) 463-0738

King, Susan

R

(512) 463-0718

Kleinschmidt, Tim

R

(512) 463-0682

Kolkhorst, Lois W.

R

(512) 463-0600

Kuempel, John Langston

R

(512) 463-0602

Landtroop, Jim

R

(512) 463-0604

Larson, Lyle

R

(512) 463-0646

Laubenberg, Jodie

R

(512) 463-0186

Lavender, George

R

(512) 463-0692

Legler, Ken

R

(512) 463-0460

Lewis, Tryon D.

R

(512) 463-0546

Lyne, Lanham

R

(512) 463-0534

Madden, Jerry

R

(512) 463-0544

Margo, Dee

R

(512) 463-0728

Miller, Doug

R

(512) 463-0325

Miller, Sid

R

(512) 463-0628

Morrison, Geanie

R

(512) 463-0456

Murphy, Jim

R

(512) 463-0514

Nash, Barbara

R

(512) 463-0562

Orr, Rob

R

(512) 463-0538

Otto, John

R

(512) 463-0570

Parker, Tan

R

(512) 463-0688

Patrick, Diane

R

(512) 463-0624

Paxton, Ken

R

(512) 463-0356

Pe?a, Aaron

R

(512) 463-0426

Perry, Charles

R

(512) 463-0542

Phillips, Larry

R

(512) 463-0297

Pitts, Jim

R

(512) 463-0516

Price, Four

R

(512) 463-0470

Riddle, Debbie

R

(512) 463-0572

Ritter, Allan

R

(512) 463-0706

Schwertner, Charles J.

R

(512) 463-0309

Scott, Connie

R

(512) 463-0462

Sheets, Kenneth

R

(512) 463-0244

Sheffield, Ralph

R

(512) 463-0630

Shelton, Mark

R

(512) 463-0608

Simpson, David

R

(512) 463-0750

Smith, Todd

R

(512) 463-0522

Smith, Wayne

R

(512) 463-0733

Smithee, John

R

(512) 463-0702

Solomons, Burt

R

(512) 463-0478

Straus, Joe

R

(512) 463-1000

Taylor, Larry

R

(512) 463-0729

Taylor, Van

R

(512) 463-0594

Torres, Raul

R

(512) 463-0484

Truitt, Vicki

R

(512) 463-0690

Weber, Randy

R

(512) 463-0707

White, James

R

(512) 463-0490

Woolley, Beverly

R

Also, there will be a rally in Austin to help remind our hapless spineless Republican leaders that the Tea Party is watching and waiting for them to do the right thing.Â The more people who can attend, the better.Â Information below, also from Donna Garner:

If you support conservative House leadership,Â we ask you to JOIN US in Austin on January 10th and 11th to send a message to the Republican members of the Texas House,

Ladies and gentlemen, we all worked too hard last year to stand by and watch self-described conservatives negotiate a surrender to the other side after we’ve already won the battle.

And yet, if we don’t show up in Austin next week, that is exactly what could happen.

Republicans and independent conservatives from across the State of Texas will be coming together next week in Austin to let the members of the Texas House know that the people of Texas demand conservative House leadership.

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